Religious belief itself is an adaptation that has evolved because we’re hard-wired to form tribalistic religions.
E. O. WILSONOf course, there is no reconciliation between the theory of evolution by natural selection and the traditional religious view of the origin of the human mind.
More E. O. Wilson Quotes
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Theology made no provision for evolution. The biblical authors had missed the most important revelation of all! Could it be that they were not really privy to the thoughts of God?
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In some ways, I had a traditional ‘old South’ upbringing, meaning that I spent some time in a military school, and acquired an
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If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.
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Of course, there is no reconciliation between the theory of evolution by natural selection and the traditional religious view of the origin of the human mind.
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If those committed to the quest fail, they will be forgiven. When lost, they will find another way.
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Science and religion are the two most powerful forces in the world. Having them at odds… is not productive.
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People need a sacred narrative. They must have a sense of larger purpose, in one form or another, however intellectualized. They will find a way to keep ancestral spirits alive.
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A very Faustian choice is upon us: whether to accept our corrosive and risky behavior as the unavoidable price of population and economic growth, or to take stock of ourselves and search for a new environmental ethic.
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Ideas emerge when a part of the real or imagined world is studied for its own sake.
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True character arises from a deeper well than religion.
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There doesn’t seem to be any other way of creating the next green revolution without GMOs.
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There is no better high than discovery.
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Ants are the leading removers of dead creatures on the land. And the rest of life is substantially dependent upon them.
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We are drowning in information, while starving for wisdom.
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An individual ant, even though it has a brain about a millionth of a size of a human being’s, can learn a maze; the kind we use is a simple rat maze in a laboratory. They can learn it about one-half as fast as a rat.
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We should preserve every scrap of biodiversity as priceless while we learn to use it and come to understand what it means to humanity.
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Nature holds the key to our aesthetic, intellectual, cognitive and even spiritual satisfaction.
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Companies that are willing to share, to withhold in order to further the growth of the company.
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If history and science have taught us anything, it is that passion and desire are not the same as truth.
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We have decommissioned natural selection and must now look deep within ourselves and decide what we wish to become.
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It’s always been a great survival value for people to believe they belong to a superior tribe. That’s just in human relationships.
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Our brain is mapping the world. Often that map is distorted, but it’s a map with constant immediate sensory input.
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Science for its part will test relentlessly every assumption about the human condition.
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Jehovah had nothing to say to Moses and the others about the care of the planet. He had plenty to say about tribal loyalty and conquest.
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Without a trace of irony I can say I have been blessed with brilliant enemies. I owe them a great debt, because they redoubled my energies and drove me in new directions.
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Perhaps the time has come to cease calling it the ‘environmentalist’ view, as though it were a lobbying effort outside the mainstream of human activity, and to start calling it the real-world view.
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